Officials from the University of Missouri Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative have awarded two MU students, two faculty members and a group of doctors with the 2013 Inclusive Excellence Award. The award is given to individuals or groups who have made contributions to any area of diversity such as gender, racial-ethnic background, language, religious belief, sexual orientation, disabilities and economic strata. This year’s recipients are:
• Rhonda Miller is an accelerated nursing student at MU working on her second bachelor’s degree. Originally from Panama, she grew up traveling around the world as a member of a U.S. military family. She has been at MU for four years and is the founder and president of the newly formed the Diversity in Nursing Association (DNA). She created DNA to inspire and serve underrepresented populations in the nursing program as a means to diversify the nursing profession.
• Jenny Chism is an academic advisor in the Trulaske College of Business and works with the Vasey Academy, which provides minority students with opportunities to learn about business and the economy as well as various academic paths into the business world. She is the Trulaske College of Business Diverse Student Association advisor and helps organize programs to educate students about diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
• Clyde Ruffin joined the MU faculty in 1983 as a professor of theatre and founding director of the MU World Theatre Workshop. He has served as department chair from 1990 to 1995 and from 2007 to present. He is the recipient of The President’s Award for Community Engagement, Purple Chalk Award, Kemper Teaching Fellowship, Faculty Alumni Award and the Chancellor’s Award for Research and Creativity. He was awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Medallion for regional and national service. From 1996 to 2003, he served as the Artistic Director for the Columbia Values Diversity Celebration and is currently President of the John W. “Blind” Boone Foundation. In 2011, Professor Ruffin led the successful campaign to place a headstone on the unmarked grave of James T. Scott, a 1923 lynching victim buried in the Columbia Cemetery for which he received the NAACP Distinguished Community Service Award.
• Jessica Semler, Erika Patterson, David Tager, and Susan Even are psychologists who work at the MU counseling center and MU student health center. They noticed a need for inclusive and knowledge-driven mental health and physical health care for MU transgender students. Over the past two years, these providers have actively sought opportunities to improve safety and services for transgender people on campus and in the Columbia community. They have worked to organize a transgender issues training (TransAction Team Training) for the MU Counseling Center and the Student Health Center staff to improve health care providers’ awareness. Semler gained approval from the counseling center to provide long-term counseling services for individuals moving toward and progressing through transitions. She also provides transgender education to the mental health trainees at the counseling center in an effort to mentor and educate future therapists in providing care for individuals who identify as transgender. These individuals’ actions consistently strive to reduce stigma, increase education, awareness, safety, acceptance, and opportunity for good professional health care for transgender people in Columbia and on the MU campus.
Census reveals growth in advanced degrees
From 2002 to 2012, the highest rate of increases in education attainment levels were doctorate and master’s degrees, according to new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. The population with a doctorate grew by about 1 million, or 45 percent, while those who held a master’s climbed by 5 million, or 43 percent.
Meanwhile, the population with an associate degree rose by 5 million, or 31 percent. Those whose highest degree was a bachelor’s degree grew at a smaller rate: 25 percent to 41 million. Meanwhile, the number of those without a high school or GED diploma declined by 13 percent, falling to 25 million. The rates of increase for doctorate and master’s holders were not significantly different from one another.
Women outnumbered men in 2012 among people whose highest level of education was a bachelor’s degree (21 million versus 19 million) or a master’s degree (9 million compared with 7.4 million). Conversely, more men had doctorate (2 million versus 1.2 million) or professional degrees (1.8 million compared with 1.2 million). Between 2002 and 2012, however, the gap between the number of men and women with professional degrees shrank.
The tabulations also show that education continues to pay off. Among people 25 and older who had any earnings in 2011, average earnings were $59,415 for people with a bachelor’s degree (but no graduate degree), compared with $32,493 for people with a high school diploma, but no college.
These statistics come from the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement, which is conducted in February, March and April each year at about 100,000 addresses nationwide.
